“Lukas?”

“Hm?”

“I’ve been patient so far, but even I have my limits.”

“What do you mean?” He asked, turning towards Tanya, who sat beside him. It had been a few days since they had learned about the attack on Banksi mansion and Solana’s rendition of events. Tanya had immersed herself into training with a new and greater zeal, which was inspiring given how much she hated Solana and would love nothing better than to tear the skinwalker to shreds. Lukas had used the opportunity to formulate his plan in silence.

Tanya’s face softened. “Something is clearly amiss if it's distracting you this much.”

“This… this doesn’t really involve you or the others. Nothing troubling, just you won’t see me around for a couple of weeks. Maybe less. And so long as things go right, no one will be the wiser, or in any danger,” he said vaguely.

“And if they go wrong?”

He smiled dryly. “Well… I’m hoping it won't. And if it does, then I’m lucky I have you on my side.”

“Something to do with your anomaly nature then,” she reasoned. “That or the Haze. You’re planning on dealing with someone that’s neither ally, enemy, nor particularly trustworthy, and yet, someone you think it’s necessary to deal with right now, despite everything that’s happening. Or rather, a deal that you have little power to change in the first place.”

Lukas arched an eyebrow. She had hit the bullseye with one of his problems — his bargain with the Frost and his worries about Tanya’s ascension to Fimbulwinter. The other issue however…

Tanya pursed her lips. “You can’t tell me you’re missing the hypocrisy of your actions, Lukas. You’ve gone out of your way to address my problems, but you keep your own to yourself. That’s not exactly what being a partner is about.”

He exhaled. “I don’t, but I can see a reasonable chance of addressing this issue by myself. Maybe I’m being hopelessly idealistic, but you know how I try to bend the odds in my favor. If this works, it will massively benefit our short term goals.”

“You mean fighting my grandfather.”

He stayed silent.

“I thought we agreed to no longer hide secrets from each other.”

“Some secrets aren’t for everyone, Tanya,” he shook his head, rejecting her claim.

“Sure they are,” she scoffed. “You have no problems sharing them with Solana.”

Lukas snorted. Tanya was his partner in all things. The one person who he could safely say to be on ‘his’ side in this world. The one person he could entrust almost all his secrets to. But despite that, he couldn’t help but feel annoyed whenever that green spark of jealousy rose in her on seeing him confiding something in someone.It was cute, in an amusing sort of way. But by God, was it annoying from time to time.

He met her eyes. “Do you still think I’m working with Solana against you?”

And just like that, her expression faltered. “No, I mean, what? No, no way, you know that —”

He held up a hand. “Solana used you, and then she hurt you. Multiple times. And despite knowing that she’ll continue to try using you in her diabolical plans, you’re learning from her.”

“Because you wanted that.”

He arched an eyebrow.

“You— you know what I mean. It’s necessary for facing Grandfather and then dealing with Frost.”

“Even though you hate her.”

“... yes,” she said, not liking the way he was leading her answers. “But that’s not the same thing. You know I’d tell you everything she tells me.”

“And you should know that I’d tell you everything worth knowing.”

“Lukas —”

“Tanya!” He snapped. “Understand. We’re playing a game against someone that’s better than us in power, in skill and in treachery. To outmaneuver him, I need a game changer. If what I understand of Mujin Shimizu is right, he’ll be prepared against Everfrost, and Ezzeron. I am the only person who he knows nothing about, and I intend to keep things that way. I’m playing the long game here.”

“What long game?”

For the briefest of moments, he contemplated ending the conversation right there, but thought better of it. Tanya was his partner. He could only see bad results across the board if he tried to keep her in the dark about what he was planning any longer. And that didn’t include the bad taste in his mouth that came up every single time he even considered lying to her.

“Tell me,” he asked. “What happens when this is over? Say somehow, we kill your grandfather. What’s next?”

“I’ll join you in whatever you want to do.”

“No,” Lukas chided her. “No fucking way. I’m on the road, not taken. The path none has traveled. A mortal, a world, trying to resurrect a goddess that doesn’t exist. It's an accumulation of impossibilities one upon another. You on the other hand, have a future —”

“Lukas, we talked about this.”

“Tanya,” he asserted. “I’m not talking about leaving you. Think for a moment. Do you imagine the two of us can take out the entire Shimizu army and your grandfather at once?”

For once, she had no answer.

“And even if you do, what happens after? You think you can just kill the Warlord, destroy his army, and then walk away? Someone will find out, and they’ll hunt for this Warlord-killer. The peace you’re looking for, you’ll never find it.”

“Then what do you want me to do?” She demanded, her voice caustic.

Lukas frowned. “I was thinking you could claim your inheritance. Become the Shimizu Lady.”

“You’re out of your mind.”

“Am I?” Lukas asked softly. “Think about it. Without the Shimizu clan to support you, you are just one girl with a King-class kami. From what I understand, the Empire will send the Cobalt Army to capture you and extract Ezzeron.”

Tanya stayed shut.

“Back on earth, we have a game called chess. It’s a game of strategy. Logic, where you have pieces representing two armies — pawns, bishops, rooks, knights, you know, the usual. The aim is to get to the other side of the board and kill the enemy king.”

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“Sounds ruthless.”

He chuckled. “Most people think that the right way is to kill the pawns, the knights, the rooks, the Queen, every single piece you can find and destroy until you reach the King. That’s who you kill last, and end the game.”

“Seems like a sensible tactic.”

He frowned. “Yes, and six months ago, I’d have said the same. But the more I think about it, the more I think it’s the other way around. If you kill everyone else and then kill the king, there’s no one else to play with. The game is over. But say, you kill off the king before everyone else and take its place, and Lo, you have an entire army to command. For a new game.”

Tanya narrowed her eyes. “Is that what you’re —”

“This world isn’t exactly very different, Tanya,” he murmured. “People aren’t permanent. Only positions are. I’m all for fighting this war, but only if we get something in the end. The Asukan Empire runs on a nobility system, and the Sacred Eight are sitting at the top. If I’m to wage a war, then we should gain something out of it.”

“Like what?”

“Like sitting as one of those Eight at the end.”

“Lukas, Ezzeron might be a King-class kami, but unless I can reach that level —”

“That’s a pipe dream, Tanya,” he murmured. “Your grandfather spent over a century training and he’s a Warlord. Just like ten of my Level-3 skills might not be equal to even one of his, ten of his skills couldn’t match a King’s. You were there at the borderland when we fought that… monster. Could he face it?”

“Impossible,” said Tanya immediately. “But you’re no king. Nowhere close and… No fucking way. Please tell me you aren’t thinking of trying to siphon that ifrit king. You couldn’t touch it with your goddess on your side. That thing will—“

“Vaporize me before I can even get remotely close to me. Yeah, I considered that. But, there’s something about it that bothers me. Something Inanna said, back at the borderland. About your powers.”

Tanya frowned. “She called me a pet.”

“Yes.” agreed Lukas “But do you remember the other thing she said?”

“She said that she’d force you into an accord with me,” said Tanya. “Bind yourself to me.Your infinite resources would cure me of my limitations. Do you think she was talking about your infinite soul capacity?”

“Feels like it. She could have been referring to Ezzeron when she spoke of your limitations.”

“We don’t know for sure,” she muttered. “She seems too interested in Everfrost.”

“She is, but Everfrost doesn’t need soul capacity. You said so yourself. Plus, it destroys potential. Trying to connect Everfrost to my anomaly would instantly kill it, and myself.”

“She said that your power will grant me the ability to conquer my demons.”

Lukas smiled. “Exactly.”

“And do you know how to do that?”

“Not quite, not yet,” he frowned. “But I’ll find out. And soon. It’s actually my Plan C.”

“I’m not sure if I should be gobsmacked that you’re trying to grant me access to infinite soul capacity, or that it’s your Plan C.”

He smiled again. “Solana’s teaching you how to access the Haze, isn’t she?”

She is, yes.”

“How are you faring?”

“Not well,” she scowled, sitting up straighter. “Turns out having the skill means nothing if you cannot reach through the Haze properly. I can open a rift but unless I can grasp the destination point right away, I’d send myself somewhere else.”

“So if things go wrong, you rift yourself to a different kingdom?”

“Only if I’m very, very lucky. Solana says that if I cannot grasp the destination and faze into it the moment I enter the rift, I’d be lost and probably end up in some twisted borderland somewhere in the Yggdrasil. And that’s only if the potent energies of the Haze don’t immolate me first.”

“That bad, huh?”

“You have no idea.”

Lukas smiled, and for a moment, he wasn’t in his room with Tanya, but standing all alone in an infinite blackness with just a single figure in the middle of it. Not a planet, or a star, or even the origin, but a titanic human silhouette. A silhouette that had seven plexi shining and rotating with eldritch energies oozing out of it.

This was it. This was his world. Not a planet, but a human-shaped world. Inanna had been wrong. The anomaly within him wasn’t trying to create a planet out of him. No, it was treating his body as a world, and morphing it to suit its worldly-powers. There were no stars in the infinite space around him, nor anything to add to the exotic nature of his world.

It was a body.

A body that was connected to the endless mists of the Haze. A body that used Blob as an accessory. A body that held within it, thousands of skills, all of them tying it up to instincts of all creatures whose souls were either siphoned or absorbed or created by the Crypt. And that was without counting those that came from Earth’s own database. Thousands of monsters, thousands of souls, thousand ways for the anomaly to evolve, and at its top, the Prime Host.

Him.

It truly was a beautiful sight.

Even if it wasn’t completely his to begin with.

The image flickered, and he was back in his room.

“Lukas? What’s going on in that anarchic head of yours?”

“There is something you should know, Tanya,” he said. “I know we went to the Keep to see if they could manufacture featherglass, but it doesn’t matter anymore. Because I can. And when I noticed that Meynte’s memories would travel back to the featherglass that Solana hid somewhere deep in the lattices of this territory. So I just created a new one, to trap the memories in it.”

“I know that,” said Tanya, flummoxed. “You told me.”

“Yes, but what I told you all wasn’t a complete truth, either.” He looked at Tanya and grinned. “I didn’t destroy Meynte’s memories. I still have them in my head…” he stroked his temples. “Somewhere up here.”

Tanya’s eyes went wide as saucers.

“I have been studying them. Figuring out what she knows about the Haze. She was no anomaly, but her ability with the Haze was absolutely phenomenal. So I thought… what if I could enter the Haze at will, and connect myself with it. World to world. The last time I did it, I got us here. I’m actually wondering where it will take me this time around.”

“Lukas you —”

“I’m going to enter the Haze, Tanya,” he said softly. “I’ve got to see what it means. What it has. Where it can take me. What it can… teach me. I might be gone for a few weeks, at worst, and until I return, I’ve allotted Solana and Maude with some duties. Just… don’t try to fight them on that.”

“Stop talking in riddles. Just tell me what you’re trying to do.”

He stared at her for a second. Then he said, “It might be better if you don’t know.”

Tanya lifted her chin and regarded him for a moment. “Excuse me?”

“This is… well, it can be nasty business. Might be safer if I don’t tell you much about it.”

“Well,” she said. “That’s quite patronizing of you, Lukas. Thank you.”

He held up a hand. “It isn’t like that.”

“It absolutely is,” she shot back. ‘I haven’t forgotten what it did to you the last time you opened the portal. And don’t forget, it attracted the freaking Ifrit King’s attention. And now you’re about to do something stupider and you won’t even tell me what it’s about.”

Lukas exhaled. “You won’t let it go, will you?”

“What do you think?”

He sighed. “Fine. It’s an idea I’m trying to experiment with. Remember how we faced the dranzithl? How I went all… crazy?”

“I still have the occasional nightmare,” said Tanya?”

“The thing is, I accessed the Crypt’s awareness, connected myself with it, and suddenly, I had access to whatever power, whatever monster, whatever route I wanted to go through. And then during the fight with Meynte, I accessed Blob, who’s connected with me through the Anomaly, and that allowed me access to all of its resources. So that got me thinking. I had established a nexus with the borderland, so what if I accessed its awareness? Or even better, access to the really exciting things within it?”

Tanya was quick to realize the implication.

“That sounds like—”

“Yes,” said Lukas, stopping her with a single word, “It sounds exactly what it sounds like.”

“But —”

“As for the third plan, there’s just one thing I need you to do.”

“What?”

Lukas pursed his lips. He hated what he was about to do. But it was necessary.

“Come here,” he said, softly grabbing her neck and pulling her close. Tanya frowned at the suddenness but closed her eyes anyway, leaning into him.

But Lukas didn’t meet her rosy lips. No, instead his mouth went to her ear, and he softly whispered.

“Frost. It’s time we had a talk.”